1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to web browsing and more specifically to the retrieval of information from the Internet using the world wide web.
2. Description of Related Art
The World Wide Web brings the vast amount of information on the Internet to the public""s attention. A problem today in web browsing is that browsing is essentially flat, with no semantic meaning applied to query and search mechanisms. Between the client, an application program that establishes connections for the purpose of sending requests from a user, and the server, an application that accepts connections in order to service requests by sending back responses, there exists a bandwidth problem of not being able to get information quickly enough to the user on the client end to do meaningful operations.
Search engine servers have been developed to allow a user to transmit a request from a client to retrieve data. Search engines rely on a user formulated query to retrieve data. In this case, a client transmits a request to a search engine server to search content sites (e.g., other servers) on the Internet for information based on user-selected xe2x80x9ckeywords.xe2x80x9d The search engine searches the web and retrieves data that matches the keywords, then transmits the matching data to the client.
The problem with the typical search engine model is the difficulty in paring down the retrieved data to data that is meaningful to the user. The wealth of information available on the Internet usually translates into a tremendous amount of matching data delivered to the client that the user must sort through to find the most meaningful material. One tool that has been developed to limit the information to particular clients is through server-based filters. Using these server-based filters, users subscribe to a service and the service delivers user-queried data to the client. The specificity of the data is determined by the user through preselected content sites such as news, sports, weather, and stock market updates. The user-selected information is stored on the service. These services typically deliver the entire content site to the server which delivers the same to the client (e.g., all stocks) or further filters the data delivered to the client (e.g., specific stocks). A problem with this system is the user still sees the entire content sites or, in the case of further filtering by the service, the user does not determine in what is delivered unless the user changes the user""s selected categories of data.
A method and a system for requesting and retrieving information from distinct web network content sites is disclosed. The method includes retrieving by a server of a first set of pre-determined data from said content sites, sending a request from a client, wherein the request contains the user profile, and adapting the server, upon receiving the request, to retrieve a second set of data from the first set of data, wherein the second set of data matches the request, and delivering the second set of data to the client.
The system of the invention includes a client adapted to send a request that contains a user profile, and a server adapted to retrieve a first set of pre-determine data. Upon receiving the request from the client, the server is adapted to retrieve a second set of data from the first set of data that substantially matches the request and deliver the second set of data to the client.
Additional features and benefits of the invention will become apparent from the detailed description, figures, and claims set forth below.